A ‘significant proprtion’ of Indonesia’s $3.3. million pavilion at climate talks in Durban was funded by Indonesian pulp and paper companies companies, reports Reuters Alertnet.
Veby Mega Indah writes that Indonesia’s official booklet on climate change includes three pages of advertorials for Asia Pulp & Paper (APP)/Sinar Mas and APRIL’s Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) as well as state-owned oil company Pertamina.
Environmentalists have linked APRIL and APP to large-scale conversion of rainforests on the island of Sumatra. Both pulp and paper producers are currently targets of campaigns by local, national and international green groups.
Bustar Maitar, the director of Greenpeace Indonesia, a group that has been particularly vocal about APP’s fiber souring practices, called the support an attempt to ‘greenwash’ its image.
“Sinar Mas is a leading company destroying Indonesian forests and peatland, and it’s a shame for the government to welcome them to ‘greenwash” it in the pavilion,” he told Alertnet.
Both APRIL and APP claim to follow Indonesian laws and be responsible stewards of the environment.
“We are developing sustainable forest management and we never touch any primary forests,” Wilson T.P. Siahaan, a spokesperson for APP Sinar Mas, was quoted as saying.
The Indonesian government forecasts 6-8 million hectares (15-20 million acres) of natural forest will be cleared for new paper and pulp production by 2050.
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